Gionatan De Pas

Mailand 1932 - Mailand 1991

Gionatan De Pas belongs to the Italian designer trio De Pas/D'Urbino/Lomazzi. All three studied at Milan Polytechnic and opened a joint practice in Milan in 1966. From the outset, Gionatan De Pas, Donato D'Urbino, and Paolo Lomazzi collaborated very closely; all projects were developed jointly. "Blow", an inflatable chair of PVC film the De Pas/D'Urbino/Lomazzi trio designed for Zanotta, made them famous over night in 1967. The chair turns all traditional notions of what furniture should be upside-down - garish color, Pop in style and certainly not durable, "Blow" became an icon of Pop culture. Gionatan De Pas, D'Urbino, and Lomazzi experimented in the 1960s with PVC for some projects on as large a scale as the inflatable pavilions they developed for the 1870 Osaka World Exposition. Another 1970s coup was "Joe", a memorable chair shaped like an outsize baseball glove. "Joe" was, of course, named after the legendary American baseball player Joe DiMaggio. In 1973 De Pas/D'Urbino/Lomazzi designed "Sciangai", a clothes stand that looks like an upright bunch of chopsticks. The trio developed designer objects for Artemide, Alessi, Cassina, Driade, Poltronova, Stilnovo,Valenti, and Zerodisegno. Gionatan De Pas died in 1991 but D'Urbino and Lomazzi continued their close collaboration.